Chapter 25

Previously in NWC-

Luna gets mad at Reno... again. Reno takes more medicine. Reno decides to stop training for the day to save Luna's sanity. Reno and Luna converse, passing the time as they excitedly wait for the night. Reno is forced to take a dose of medicine again before changing clothes and giving Medusa one of his plain blue shirts. The group goes to sleep, with Medusa waking up in the middle of the night. Medusa over hears two bandits having a conversation about attacking the village in 6 days, but she doesn't understand it's bad. She goes back to sleep, thinking nothing of the two men...

Reno is the first to wake up, trying to turn over but quickly finding himself trapped by Medusa's vines. "Come on, man… again?!" He sighs, taking a deep breath before shouting. "Medusa, wake up!"

Luna snaps awake from the sudden shouting, flying out of the sleeping bag. "I'm awake!"

"That's nice and all, but the one I need awake isn't budging! Medusa! WAKE! UP!" He tosses and turns in her vines, trying to crawl away like a caterpillar. Medusa turns over and pulls Reno back, bringing him closer and rubbing her cheek against his in her sleep. "I'm gonna start making you sleep outside if you don't WAKE UP!" Finally, Reno yelling directly next to her causes her to slowly stir awake. 

"Muh.." Medusa uses her vines to rub her eyes as she yawns and slides out of the shelter. 

"Finally!" Reno takes a deep breath and quickly stands up, stretching. "Guh-!" Reno quickly crouches over, holding his stomach.

"I see your stomach is still hurting."

"Just when I stretched too much. I had completely forgotten for a moment." It takes him a couple seconds, but Reno is able to recover quickly. He checks the bruise on his stomach which had now reached it's full size, covering about 70 percent of his stomach. "I think if I just go easy during training I should be fine."

"Reno, we talked about this! You need to rest!"

"It's fine, really. I think the sudden stretching was just too much."

"Absolutely not!"

"How am I supposed to fight the bandits if I don't train? If I'm just waiting around all day then I'll never improve. If I never improve then I'll never be ready to fight the bandits! If I'm never ready to fight the bandits then we'll never get your power shards back! A little bit of pain isn't going to kill me, Luna!" 

"Why must you be so troublesome…" Luna gives up on convincing Reno and simply watches as he starts a fire to boil water. "Make sure you shower tonight, you stink." Reno didn't smell bad; he didn't have a particular scent to him at all. She was just being petty.

"I-what?" He tries sniffing himself, not smelling anything. "What do you even mean?! I can't even smell myself!"

"Must be nice." Luna refuses to elaborate, ignoring Reno's continuous attempts to get more information from her.

After boiling water, he cooks their breakfast and immediately gets to training. Medusa was making quick progress on her stocks and Reno was looking less and less like a train wreck. Before they even knew it, it was almost time for the mayor to show up. Luna takes Medusa and they hide in the barn. Reno idles his time away waiting for the mayor. The mayor shoes up shortly after, bringing a basket with food in it. The two eat and talk about the plot of land and Reno's plans for it. The mayor takes measurements and returns to the Town hall to begin the paper work. After retrieving Luna and Medusa, the group continues their day, the second half much like the first. Night comes and Reno showers, still feeling self-conscious about Luna's petty comment. Medusa had managed to complete the other three stocks, happily cheering as Reno praises her for her hard work. Reno gathers the four stocks and sets them aside to take to Kent the following morning. The group return to the barn for an uneventful night. Morning quickly comes once more, with Reno constricted once again. After they all wake up and eat, Reno decides to pay Kent a visit, ready to turn in the stocks. He makes his way to the blacksmith's, making sure to cover the stocks with a blanket to make sure no one can see them. "Hell, Mr. Kent?" Reno stands in the front room of the shop, waiting for some kind of response. "Mr. Kent?" Reno calls again, this time a bit louder. Finally, he hears rummaging from further in. Kent emerges from the back and sighs, rubbing his eyes. "Hey, sorry kid, didn't hear ya' come in." Kent's eyes appear heavy as they visibly struggle to stay open. He yawns as he leans on the counter, looking at Reno. "What'd ya' need?"

Reno uncovers the stocks and sets them on the counter. "Just fulfilling my end of the deal."

Kent's eyes widen as he inspects the quality. "These ain't half bad, kid! How the hell did ya' do it?"

Reno thinks for a second before he responds. "Truth be told, I don't really know either."

"Well, they ain't gonna last long since they're not made of tougher wood, but for a one-night rebellion they should do perfectly." Kent's eyes widen as he suddenly remembers something. "That's right, I got somethin' for ya'." Kent takes the stocks and carries them to the back, returning with something else in exchange. "It might be a bit rushed; I haven't made a sword for a bit so I was a bit rough around the edges. Been up all night poundin' away at this thing." Kent hands over the sword and sheath, nodding his head with approval as he inspects his work one last time.

Reno takes the sword with widened eyes, excited as he feels the full weight in his hands. "You stayed up all night?! You didn't need to do that!"

"Unfortunately I did. I didn't time things correctly so it was ready to be shaped before I knew it. Luckily I hadn't fallen asleep yet or the metal would've been wasted. What do you think?"

Reno slowly pulls the sword out of it's sheath, his eyes glowing with excitement. "It's amazing! I don't even know what to say! Easily the best I've ever seen!"

"Now you're just overexaggerating. Ain't nothin but a basic sword."

"I guess so, but it's my first real sword, so by default it's the best I've ever had!" Reno excitedly stows the sword, holding it close to him. 

"Tell you what, kid, if we can fight off these damn bandits then I'll give you a discount on a steel sword when we get another big shipment of iron."

Reno gives Kent a determined smile. "I believe in Bambadale. I've seen enough to know the people here are much more than they let on. We WILL beat them, no matter what!" Reno puffs his chest out, trying his best to look triumphant.

"Don't get too cocky, kid. It might not be just you whose fighting, but it could easily be just you who ends up dead."

Reno visibly deflates as he loses his previous determination. "Let's, uhh… let's not joke about that."

Kent chuckles as he turns, walking back into the shop. "Well, kid, I'll be seein' ya'."

Reno waves goodbye as he excitedly rushes home with his new sword. Immediately upon arrival, he sets it up, hooking it around his waist. "Luna, check it out!" Luna looks over to see Reno pull out the shining new weapon. "New sword!"

"Is that the one Kent said he would make for you?"

"Yea!"

Luna inspects it, eyeballing it up and down as she floats along it's length. "It's quite the work! I can tell Kent put a great deal of effort in to it. Try to keep it looking nice, okay?"

"Oh, I definitely will. I'm still going to practice with the dull one, but this one was just too cool not to try out!" Reno happily swings the new sword around. To his surprise, the blade felt much more balanced and easier to swing. "Damn, you can tell how much better this one is just by holding it. Here, catch!" Reno acts like he's going to toss the sword at Luna, causing her to fly around in a panic.

"NO!"

Reno laughs as he stows the blade, reequipping the practice sword. "I would never toss my new shiny, awesome, and cool sword around. You should know better." Luna huffs in frustration, finally calming down. "Mr. Kent also said he'd give me a discount on a steel sword if we actually get rid of the bandits!"

Luna watches as Reno continues to practice as he talks. Her voice is tinged with a slight bit of irritation. "Reno! Before you go buying a better sword you need to become better outfitted!"

Reno looks at Lunas with confusion, mindlessly swinging his sword in a controlled and steady pace. "What? What's wrong with my clothes? Blue is my favorite color!" 

"The color blue won't stop a sword from cutting you open!"

Reno thinks for a moment before agreeing. "I mean, no, but I'd look objectively good while dying."

"May you just take things seriously for once!"

Reno sighs as he stops swinging, turning to face Luna. "I get it, but I can't do much about it right now can I? I can't really ask Kent to make me armor when he's already making parts for the guns along with everything else he already makes. Besides, we're going to have guns on our side."

"And how do you know that the bandits don't?!"

Reno stops and realizes he never thought about that possibility. "I have the ever-loving guidance of a goddess on my side. She'd never let me die!"

"For the love of the Universe!"

TO BE CONTINUED...